𝘾 𝙖 𝙡 𝙢 🌼 A Pocket Guide To Breathe Easy

i feel alone in the universe

The problem.

I have friends, maybe a few friends, maybe no real friends. What even is a real friend? I think of everyone who has come and gone. I see shadows around me. I feel alone in the universe.

The Zen understanding.

I am not going to tell you that "you are not alone," because you already know that. After all, you are always welcome to DM me, if nobody else. There also exist many hotlines, clubs, and social groups. Even knowing this, it's still hard not to feel alone, and that's where I'll try to help.

A Zen Buddhist would explain that you are not alone because no thing is alone.

Cause is never without an effect, and an effect is never without cause. If "cause" could possess an identity in isolation, on what basis is it a cause? If an "effect" could possess an identity in isolation, on what basis is it an effect? A cause can only be seen by its effect. An effect can only be seen by its cause.

Identify your body. Are you sure? Where is your body located? Point to any part of you, but that is not your body. Your hand, arm, head, etc. are parts of your body. If you point to the whole thing and say, this is my body, still what is that? It is parts. And when those parts dissolve away after death, where is the body now? It is particles.

What is a particle? Smaller particles. What is a smaller particle? Even smaller particles. What is the smallest fathomable particle?

The smallest particle is itself and not-nothingness, as no other explanation is fathomable by definition. Thus, there is only co-existence. There is only "anything" because there is "everything," and only "everything" because there is "anything."

Not a thing in our world exists in isolation. You and me are conventionally distinct, but really we do not exist without each other, without everything and anything else. In the Zen Buddhist understanding, we are not our minds or our souls, which are then locked away and unable to reach others. We are each other.

Touch a flower, touch something warm, touch your friend. The wall you feel between you is conventionally real, but not truly real. I am you and you are me. There are no walls. A Zen Buddhist practices love for anyone and everyone, because there is no other way about it.

No one is alone.

The Zen application.

Study your reality and ask questions. Do not take my word for it, or anybody's word for it. While Zen Buddhists use sutras to help us understand reality, we must reason through everything ourselves.

If you've always believed something and never doubted it, ask yourself why. If you're honest, you will find that fear is often the reason. If not fear, then it is ignorance. There is nothing wrong with being fearful or ignorant; only with identifying these things in yourself and then not doing anything about it.

Your confidence in inter-dependence will bring you happiness.